FACTS which contradict what is taught in the universities and which even run counter to the assumptions made by critics of misandry.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Freydis Ericsdotter, Who Murdered 5 Women in an Early American Viking Colony - 1010

Freydis Ericsdotter – Freydis was the daughter of Eirik the
Red, the discoverer of Greenland.

This may not be a serial murder case, but rather a
mass killing. It is nevertheless included here as an early example of multiple
female murder of females.

***

EXCERPT from 1906 book: In the year 1006 Thorfinn
Karlsfne, a wealthy merchant of Iceland, visited Greenland and remained through
the winter. He was accompanied by three other merchants, who, with him, felt
such deep interest in the new country to the south-west that an expedition of
three vessels was fitted out, including more than a hundred men and women.
Among the latter was one named Freydis – a reputed daughter of Eric the Red –
the wife of a Greenlander, Thorvard, who commanded one of the vessels. If a
tenth part of what is said of her is true, she was one of the most terrible
Amazons that ever lived.

The expedition sailed in the spring of 1007. It
promised to be the most successful of all the enterprises of that kind, but it
ended in disaster. There was much quarreling among the women, and naturally, in
time, it involved their friends and husbands. They spent the first winter on
the shores, it is supposed, of Buzzards’ Bay [present-day Massachusetts and
Rhode Island], and suffered much for want of food. The following summer a
number of discontented members deserted the colony, but they were driven across
the ocean to the coast of Ireland, and were captured and reduced to slavery.

The two remaining ships made a long exploring
expedition to the southward. Just where they passed the succeeding winter is
not known. For a time, when they returned to their old settlement, or its
neighborhood, all went well, and they drove a brisk trade with the natives. But
trouble soon came; the Northmen were attacked by the savages in overwhelming
numbers, and though the white men fought with great courage, they were put to
flight. The natives rushed after them like a mountain torrent, and doubtless
would have slain every one, but for Freydis, wife of Captain Thorvard. She
seized a sword, and beating her breasts with rage, she shamed the men, who
rallied about her and soon put their assailants to flight.

The colony was abandoned in 1010, against the
protests of Freydis, who saw how vastly superior in every respect the new
country was to Greenland. By her indomitable will she succeeded in organizing a
new expedition, which set sail the following spring. Her ambition and terrific
temper soon divided the colonists into two parties of mortal enemies. Those who
opposed her were slain, and among them were five women she killed with her own
hand. The winter which followed must have been unspeakably gloomy to the
survivors. They toiled hard in felling timber and gathering a few other
productions, with which they set sail for Greenland. Freydis threatened with
death any one who should tell of the massacre, but the truth gradually leaked
out. Neither she nor her accomplices were punished, however, for what was
certainly one of the most frightful misdeeds that can be conceived.

[Edward Everett Hale, Oscar Phelps Austin, Nelson Appleton
Miles, George Cary Eggleston, The United States of America: a pictorial history
of the American Nation From The Earliest Discoveries And Settlements To The
Present Time, Volume 1. Imperial Pub. Co., New York, 1909, p. 5]

***

An account from 1993: North America’s first mass-slayer of European descent was
Freydis, the sister-in-law of Viking explorer Leif Ericson. Records are sparse
from the era of Norse exploration, but we know that Leif colonized Greenland
and Iceland around 1000 A.D., moving on from there to explore “Vinland,” in the
neighborhood of modern Nova Scotia and New England. Aboriginal natives, dubbed
“skrellings,” were the first to be attacked and slain, but over time the
Norsemen turned on one another with a vengeance … and in one dramatic scene, a
spiteful woman was to blame.

As the wife of Lief’s brother Thorwald, Freydis accompanied
her husband’s war party to Vinland, a few years after the Greenland colony was
established. Harsh weather and resistance by the stubborn “skrellings” caused
dissatisfaction early on, and Freydis stirred the pot by quarreling incessantly
with two brothers, Helgi and Finnbogi, who claimed a substantial following of
their own. By wintertime, dissent had split the Viking band in two, with
Thorwald’s clique residing in one camp, followers of Helgi and Finnbogi in
another. The two groups barely spoke, but they had managed to avoid overt hostilities
so far.

One morning in the early morning, Freydis rose before
husband, walking barefoot to the long house where the brothers lived. She woke
Finnbogi, offering to swap his ship for Thorwald’s, and Finnbogi readily
agreed. Returning to her husband’s bed, the scheming Freydis pressed her cold,
wet feet against Thorwald’s back, rousing him from sleep. He asked where she
had been, and Freydis spun a tale that sealed the fate of her opponents in the
other camp.

“I went to see the brothers,” she explained, “to try to buy
their ship, for I wished to have a larger vessel. They received my overture so
ill that they struck me and handled me very roughly.”

Enraged by the mythical assault on Freydis, Thorwald called
his men to arms and marched against his adversaries, catching Helgi and
Finnbogi asleep, disarming their group and binding the men before they could
defend themselves. One by one, the captives were led from their cabin, hacked
to death on orders from Freydis, but Thorwald drew the line at murdering five
women in the party.

“Hand me an ax!” commanded Freydis, and she set upon the
women by herself, killing all five before her rage was exhausted. Finally,
smeared with blood from head to foot, she turned to Thorwald and his warriors,
persuading them to keep the massacre a secret from their countrymen to
Greenland. Sailing home in the long ship stolen from Finnbogi’s party, Freydis
and company informed Leif Ericson that the brothers and their followers had
decided to stay on in Vinland. At the time, Leif accepted the lie with no
questions asked.